FVG
by Snowskeeper
Summary: Flayed ones VS Genestealers. Based on Aliens VS Predators. Rated T for violence and swearing. If you're a teenager and you're not alowed to read swears, there's a language filter for that.
1. Chapter 1

_Happy Humanity sat on a wall._

_Happy Humanity had a great fall!_

_All of our efforts to put him to mends_

_Couldn't make happy be Human again!_

_(From Armageddon's children by Terry Brooks)_

"What are we even doing here?" Garth snarled. The group of Imperial Guardsmen had been assigned here to guard a small compound. They weren't allowed in, nor was there any obvious signs to what was being done inside.

"Calm down, mate." A nearby guardsmen, named Rale, muttered. "We could be on the front lines of Armageddon, or part of the group tasked with retaking Damnos." They both shuddered at that last one. They had heard of the Necrons taking that mining world in only 3 days, easily squashing the resistance in their path.

"Yeah, but still, why assign us _here? _There's no danger of anything attacking this shit-heap!" His companion looked around nervously before replying.

"Shut up! Do you want us reported for insubordination?"

"Who's gonna report us? Hey Malc!" He shouted over at a nearby soldier. Malcolm looked up. "Do you think this is the most pointless posting ever?"

"Nah, I think that being ordered to beat a Space-Marine in power-armour at arm wrestling's the most pointless posting ever, but this comes pretty damn close. Still, I'm not complaining. I'd rather be here than, let's say, Lucky Space. There was a universal nod of agreement at that.

"See?" Garth turned back to Rale. "I'm not the only one, and no-one's running off to the Commissar." Rale shrugged.

"I agree with you, mate, but that doesn't mean you should go blabbing your mouth off around other Guardsmen, that's gonna get you killed someday."

"You ain't my mother, 'mate', shut the fu-" Garth was cut the sudden appearance of a strange metallic creature, with huge claws for fingers and a grinning skull for a face.

"SHIT! NECRONS!" Garth screamed, before being eviscerated calmly by the creature in front of him. Clutching the bloody skin of his fallen foe in its hands, it vanished.

"Dammit! Garth's down! What the hell!" Rale shouted in fury and fear, looking down at the naked corpse, the reins still weakly pulsing and ejecting blood onto the grass around the compound.

_"This is home base 1, contacting Imperial Guardsmen Squad 1, what is your status. We have received reports of a casualty by a class 2595, over._

"This is Rale, we can confirm. Class 2595 has killed Garth, no chance of revival. It... it cut off his skin!"

_"Yeah, Class 2595's will do that, that's why they're called Flayed Ones. Just calm down, we'll gets someone out there to help y- Oh shit! We need backup, now! All units, recalled to home base. Repeat, all units, back to ho-" _Static. Rale clutched his vox unit, looking straight towards home base. The glorious tower was suddenly blocked from his view by a huge blast of green. When the blast finally cleared, there was nothing at all.

"Alright, our only hope lies with whatever the hell they're doing in there." These optimistic words came from the squad's leader, Albos. "It can't be anything normal, or else we wouldn't have been assigned here, but we still need to be careful. Who wants to be point?" No hands were raised. "Alright, Malcolm. Thanks for volunteering!"

"What? But I didn't-"

"You get double rations for a week if you agree."

"I'm point!" The other laughed, the mood lightened a bit, and they proceeded. The door was locked, but it wasn't reinforced. It was easily taken apart by one of the Frag grenades carried by Malcolm, and they proceeded. "It's a bit dark in here, don't you think?" Rale nodded.

" Yeah, it's way too dark in here. It's creeping me out." Albos snorted.

"You guys were trained for Imperial duty, and a bit of shade's scaring you. It's kind of sad."

"It's not the darkness, mate, it's what's lurking in it. There were 60 of us this morning, now there are only 59. One too many losses, in my opinion, to keep being reckless." Albos rolled his eyes, but he nodded.

"You've got a point, I guess. Alright, all troops be on the lookout for any suspicious activity. You see movement, check if it's human. If it's not, shoot it. If it is, ask for the countersign. If it doesn't give it, then shoot it." The squad nodded nervously.

"Malcolm, what's the hold up?" Albos asked impatiently. Malcolm had stopped directly in the center of the path, just before a set of doors.

"I have a feeling that there's something in there. Something not human."

"So? Get your gun out, don't stop in the middle of the path!" Malcolm nodded, and moved forward. He opened the doors and stepped through. He looked around, and began to move forward-

And was yanked out of sight by a pair of white, fungus-infested hands.

"That wasn't a Necron." Said Rale, pointing out the obvious.


	2. Chapter 2

_Now he's curled into a ball..._

_Doesn't seem to move at all..._

_Is he dead I'll just be sure..._

_Pick this book up off the floor..._

_(Boris the Spider, I can't remember the writer .)_

Malcolm had been gone for a full ten seconds before panic began to sink in. Not only was there a group of Necron Flayed Ones in the area, but something else? Daemons, someone suggested? A new breed of Ork, look at the fungus! said another. Finally, Albos managed to regain control.

Troops, I know that you're scared, but we can't afford to panic right now! We have to continue! If we push on, we can still make it out of this hell hole!

These were the words Rale was imagining that Albos was saying. In reality, it was something much less reassuring.

"You sons of bitches, get your asses back in gear! We're going into that damn room, and we're going to find something we can use to kill these bastards, and then we're getting off this damned planet! Now, in the name of the Emperor, march!" They marched, not because they wanted to, not because they needed to, but because Albos's pistol was aiming squarely at their backs.

You didn't mess with Albos. Even though each of them was a trained shot, and could most likely win a fair fight easily. Against Albos, only one of them would have a chance, and he was the least likely to stop of any of them.

They came to a fork in the road, two separate paths leading off in opposite directions. One lead up, and had a few patches of fungus on it. The other led down, and was scrupulously clean.

"Alright, we'll split up." said Albos. "Rale, as my new second in command after the deaths of both Malcolm and Garth, you are now in command of team two. So we split our force in half, you go down, I go up. Got that, son?" Albos looked over at Rale, not reassuringly, but in a way that suggested scepticism.

"Yeah, I got that. Sir." Rale said calmly, not showing the irritation he felt.

"Good. Get your asses moving!" He said this to the entire squad. Both halves went down their separate tunnels.

_Later_

Rale moved slowly, keeping his back against the metal walls. His force was less than a quarter of the strength it had been before, and moral was breaking. They had gotten about a mile down before the first attack came, which is when they began moving in the other direction. They had trashed the first Flayed One without any casualties, but the second hit them behind as they were sprinting backwards. They had lost three then, and even then, when they were taking huge precautions to cover each other's backs and to look in every direction, they had still been caught unawares by most of the attacks, only managing to fight them off by sending troops to run away, and when the Flayed Ones gave chase, shooting them apart.

"Sir, we're running out of troops, and the exit isn't in sight! We're going to die down here, aren't we?"

"Soldier, we're going to make it. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to deal with Albos again soon enough." That elicited a few nervous chuckles, but the tension remained, strong as ever.

_Still Later_

Rale ran full pelt down the corridor, the horrible clicking of metal claws close behind him. He could hear the wet shlopping of the 6 predators' newly acquired skins, and that made him run all the faster, the thought of Garth, literally torn apart for the skin off his back, filling his head.

_Why run, mortal? You know you're going to die._ He didn't stop, this wasn't the first time voices, even those from outside forces, had entered his head. He didn't even mother to respond. _Come on, soldier. You aren't going to make it out of this tunnel. And if you do, the devourer will get you. They're all over this planet. You brought them, and for that, you will pay, but only at the feet of the C'tan Nightbringer. For now, we shall settle for taking your skin like we took the skins of your comrades. We promise to make it easy on you, painless, maybe, if you just stop, just lie down and let us do our work for our gods, as you have tried to do yours. _Tempting as the words were, Rale continued.

_Then you would die in agony, in terrible torture? You know you can't escape. _This time Rale did respond.

"Shut... the... hell... up!" He shouted! The voices immediately ceased, but the clinking, the shlopping continued. Finally, he saw the exact from the tunnel, he was almost there-

Two creatures, covered in fungus-like growths all over their bodies, fell from the ceiling. They hissed at him, and charged.

_Genestealers, perfect. At least they aren't Orks. _he thought to himself, and rolled between them, just barely avoiding their outstretched claws. 4 more dropped from where there friends had, and turned to meet the Flayed Ones, as did the 2 that had already dropped. Rale didn't turn to look back. He knew that the Flayed Ones would most likely win, they were the stronger, but there was no telling how many other Genestealers would come streaming out of that hole in the ceiling.

Finally, he charged into out of the door- and was met by the muzzle of a las pistol.

"Who- Who are you?" A quavering voice behind the equally shaking pistol asked. "And how did you make it away from those... things?"

"My name is Rale. I am a member of the Imperial Guard. From your inexperience with this weapon, I'd guess that you're a member of the scientific crew in this construct. Please lower your gun, and we can go find the rest of my team, and get out of here." Rale said in his best 'please calm down, don't shoot me, I'm too young to die' voice.

"We can't go back that way!" The scientist gestured wildly in the general direction of the door that Malcolm had been snatched from. Rale noticed it was closed now. He hoped the scientist had done it, and not something wanting more humans to fall for the same trap.

"Don't worry, we're going up there." He gestured with his hand down the path full of fungus.

"N-no! We can't go up there! They'll kill us!" The scientist aimed at Rale again, and began to squeeze the trigger. In a heartbeat, Rale smashed the man's wrist, performed a legsweep knocking the man's legs out from under him, and hit him once on the head, knocking him out cold.

_Now that that distraction has... ceased, let us return to our conversation, human. _Rale's blood turned to ice. He turned around, realizing that the sound of combat had abated. He took one quick look at the scientist. "Shit!" He shouted, and charged up the fungus path, his gun at the ready.


	3. Chapter 3

_I gave you_

_Blood, blood, galleons of the stuff_

_I gave you all that you could drink_

_And it has never been enough..._

_(Blood, My Chemical Romance)_

Rale ran down the corridor, the sound of squelching fungus only compelling him to move faster, to get away from whatever was down there. He couldn't leave, because A: Whatever had got Malcolm was probably still waiting to catch someone unawares, and B: He had to find whatever was left of his squad.

He encountered a single Genestealer on the path, just one, and it was obviously heading somewhere else. He hid for a second, then fired a Las-pistol round directly in the back of its head. It made a strange, whining noise, before collapsing to the ground. He noticed that the more the fungus increased the less fungus the Genestealers had on them. He stored that away as something to think about later.

He was about half a mile down when he heard the guns. It sounded like a small blitz of Las fire was going on a small distance away. He began to run faster. No Genestealer knew how to use a Las-Pistol, let alone something that could fire off that many that fast.

He rounded the corner, Las-Pistol at the ready. A Las round went right over his shoulder. "Shit, almost hit you there. Announce yourself next time." Albos. He wished he could say he was surprised. Albos had two Las-Pistols, and was firing repeatedly down the passage. He always hit his mark, always a death blow. But there were thousands of Genestealers. They would overwhelm him soon. Rale dropped to one knee and added his fire single Las-Pistol to the flood.

"Where's the rest of you?"

"Flayed ones got 'em."

"Dammit." He said it without any real emotion. That pissed Rale off.

"What, your entire squad gone in the blink of an eye, and all you can say is 'Dammit'? You've got to be kidding me!"

"Look, Rale. I know that you think I should be a nice guy. That I should be kind and caring and loving, and generally be overprotective of my troops. The truth is, this is the third squad I've led. The first one, I didn't allow to go into a battle that I knew we would all lose. They were killed for treason, and the only reason I survived is because they said they knocked me out and locked me in a cupboard the entire battle. The second squad, I led into battle, but they hadn't received the training that you guys received."

"You mean the one where they send us into armed combat with each other?"

"Yeah. And only one squad usually makes it out. They were massacred. You guys, you survived 5 missions before this one. Completely intact. I mean, we had veterans like you and Garth, but everyone else was a completely raw trainee. And, let's face it, your file wasn't exactly full of golden stars, either. So, what do you think worked out better? And besides, the entire point of the Imperial Guard was to be used as cannon fodder. We are what people call in when they have a meat grinder to fill up. We aren't anything more to the Imperium, and there's less penalties for shooting us than shooting a ganger. So you tell me that I should be nicer to my troops, WITHOUT your eye twitching."

Rale didn't respond. He kept firing. His shots were even more accurate than his squad leader's, but he wasn't using two shots. And his position was more stable, compared to his leader's sitting position against the wall... Wait. "Shit, you're wounded."

Albos snorted. "Took you long enough to notice. Don't worry about it. It's fatal."

"You'd think it being fatal would be a reason to worry about it."

"Shut up. Now, you're going to leave. You're going to get Exterminatus on this planet, even if it means that you're still on it. So far only the Flayed Ones and one Monolith, the one that destroyed the main base, have woken up. It isn't gonna stay that way. And if these Genestealers keep up, we're going to have a Tyranid swarm coming up here. It's too close to Terra for that."

"I doubt that'll happen." Both Rale and Albos looked up at that. The flood of Genestealers had suddenly halted, and a single man stood there. He had several Genestealers to each side of him, but none of them attacked. "You see, we've got these things completely under control."

"So, you sicked them on us?" Rale asked, already training his pistol directly on the newcomer's face.

"Of course. We needed testing."

"So you made that Monolith attack the main base?" The professor frowned at that.

"Ah, the Necrons. An... unexpected addition to the experiment. Once we gain full control, we're going to take control of them."

"'Take care of...' A full Exterminatus wasn't able to destroy a Necron Tombworld! And you think that a few Genestealers are going to do it?"

"Genestealers aren't all we have, they're all that are ready. They aren't perfected yet. I expect you've met our 'door guard?' And the fungus-clad ones? The Door Guard is our oldest model, and the more fungus on one, the less control I have. But these guys, they have no fungus on them. Complete human control. Only need a human's voice to control them. And I've already started work on Hierophants."

"...Really? Only a human's voice..."

"Yes." The man said, slightly unnerved by the way Rale had said that. Rale smiled.

"Genestealers, kill him." The man opened his mouth, his face contorting into an expression of pure horror. Then the Genestealers turned, and began to rip him apart.

"Genestealers, transmit this order over your telepathic network. Destroy all works this lunatic was making, then kill each other and yourselves."

_Finally caught you. And your friend. And some more Tyranids. Interesting._

"Genestealers, stop transmitting, destroy whatever's coming up that corridor."

_Ah, you want to play, how sweet. Even if you have enough to take out my Flayed Ones, I'll only send more. I am present on a thousand worlds. I am death incarnate, I am the Nightbringer. You will not make it out of here._

"Shut up!" Albos looked at him curiously, then his eyes widened, and he understood.

"What's a C'tan doing talking to you?"

"How did you know?"

"There's no Hive Mind, and only a C'tan in the Necrons can connect to a mind like that. They aren't Psychers, but they can still talk like that. It's strange. You still need to move. Get out, now."

"What about you?"

"Well, no Tyranids left soon, so I won't be eaten. And the Necrons are gonna be targeting you, so I should survive for a while yet. And if I do go down, at least it'll be with a gun in my hand and a Gauss Flayer taking me apart. Less painful than being eaten, I expect."

"Not what I heard."

"Just shut up and go already." Rale shut up and went.


	4. Epilogue

_...I gave you blood, blood, blood!_

_I'm the kind of human wrecker that you love!_

_(Blood, My Chemical Romance)_

Rale made it out. A ship had been in orbit, waiting for word from base about the strange pillar of green light they had seen on the surface. When they received a broadcast from a small shuttle flying up to dock, they didn't know what to expect. The ship had had a disguised Inquisitor on board, who had been suspicious to say the least about the activities of the compound. When he heard Rale's story, he immediately ordered full Exterminatus on the planet. They knew exactly where to put it so that even if it didn't fully destroy the Necrons, it would keep them asleep for many more millennia to come.

But aboard Rale's ship was an unexpected traveler. As soon as they boarded, the Door Guard moved out to set up a nest aboard the ship.

And directly above where the base had been, a small pyramid floated gently. It would take it a while to build up momentum to make it to the next Tombworld. To revive the loyal followers of the Nightbringer. But what was the rush? It would still be here millions of years after all life had died. It had all the time in the world...


End file.
